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Mark Moran / THE CITIZENS' VOICE
J.J. Banko's Seafood in West Nanticoke is one of several West Nanticoke and Plymouth Township businesses that returned after Tropical Storm Lee damaged much of the area.

PLYMOUTH TWP. - Countless hours of work, lots of bleach and cleanser, more than $50,000 in investment and a fractured foot later, all traces of flood mud and river water are gone from Richard and Beverly Sokolowski's East Poplar Street house.

The Sokolowskis, who are among more than 70 Plymouth Township homeowners and about 12 business owners affected by the September 2011 Tropical Storm Lee flood, moved back home in February from a temporary rental in Hanover Township.

But it was a long haul: Richard broke his foot falling off a ladder, the bill for renovations - which included new windows, doors, insulation and carpeting - was steep, and the work at times was backbreaking.

"It's been a nightmare," Beverly Sokolowski said, sitting at the counter in her newly remodeled kitchen.

"Thank God we had flood insurance," her husband added.

A year after the Susquehanna River's worst flood since Tropical Storm Agnes in June 1972, some homeowners chose to renovate and stay, while others are seeking to move to higher ground. All the businesses are back up and running, the township supervisors say.

On East Canal Street, the piles of debris are long gone and lawns are green again.

Ed Nowak has lived on the street for all his 60 years; his wife, Judy, joined him there when they married 40 years ago. But the Nowaks are fed up with flooding and want get off Canal Street.

"We like it, other than the river coming up. That's why it's hard to move," Nowak said.

The Nowaks had water in their first floor in 1972 and in their basement in all the other floods. Last year, when the river took over their neighborhood, they had 6 feet of water on the first floor.

"Oh, it was a mess when the water went down," Nowak recalled.

The supervisors arranged to have Dumpsters brought in, and neighbors mucked out their houses and raked up their flood-flattened, mud-layered yards.

"It took a lot of fire companies coming in and putting their hoses down and making sure the mud was moving out," Nowak said. "A little paint goes a long way, too."

The Nowaks washed their house down, repainted and took steps to keep the mold out, but unlike the Sokolowskis, they didn't remodel.

"We didn't put a lot of big money in. They told us there was going to be a buyout and we signed up for that," Nowak said. "We made the house livable, let's put it that way."

Although several of their Poplar Street neighbors took federal buyouts to have their homes demolished, the Sokolowskis didn't. For one thing, Beverly Sokolowski didn't want to leave the area where she was born and lived in for 55 years. For another, the $82,000 they would have received wasn't enough to pay off a mortgage and buy a new home, Richard Sokolowski said.

"You can only take so much of it (flooding), but if they only give you so much, it's not worth it," he said.

In 2008, 17 residents received a total of $1.7 million in federal hazard mitigation grants from money made available after the June 2006 flood; seven more received buyouts a year ago from a different 2006 disaster, and now seven others are getting buyouts from funds allotted after a 2010 snowstorm.

Supervisor Joseph Yudichak said 29 residents applied for the latest round of federal funding made available after the 2011 flood, but those buyouts won't be announced until 2013. Five residents also demolished flood-damaged buildings on their own dime, he said.

All in all, the township expects to lose about 60 homes in the floodplain, Yudichak said.

Plymouth Township's West Nanticoke section is not only close to the Susquehanna River, but Harveys Creek backs up when the river overflows its banks.

So floods are an unwelcome but inevitable fact of life: prior to 2011, Plymouth Township experienced damaging floods in January 1996, September 2004, April 2005 and June 2006.

"Almost every person of the 60 was flooded in some way, shape or form in all of those floods," Supervisor Chairwoman Gale Conrad said.

The supervisors would like to see flood victims stay in the township - on "higher, drier ground," as Conrad put it. They are actively seeking ways to help residents get rid of homes in floodplains.

Doesn't the loss of residents affect the tax base in the cash-strapped community, which is working its way out of its state-designated financially distressed status?

"Not really," Conrad said, explaining that if the township gets one new home in the mountainous section, it picks up the tax base value for three or four in the floodplain. The homes that are flooded have been in the township for a long time, and repetitive flooding takes away from a house's value, she said.

In addition, Conrad said average floodplain property owners pay $1,100 a year for flood insurance - triple their homeowner's insurance bill.

Businesses bounce back

With the exception of government loans at 4 or 6 percent interest, there isn't much available in terms of flood assistance for commercial properties.

One of the first to reopen was J.J. Banko's Seafood on U.S. Route 11, next to Harveys Creek. The restaurant, a local landmark that advertises itself as "located on and sometimes under water," was ready to serve patrons within a month of the flood, thanks to help from family, friends and employees. Owner Jeff Bankovich paid for repairs out of his own pocket.

The PenMart on Route 11 took a bit longer to reopen - 53 days after the flood, owner Eric May said.

"Basically, everything from the ceiling tiles down was gutted out of that store, including the drywall, the electric, obviously all the shelving, the equipment, the floor was redone," he said.

The store got "about 6 feet of water, and our first floor is built out of the 100-year floodplain," May said. It was the first time water had come into the building.

In fact, of the May family's five gas station/convenience stores that were damaged during Lee - in Plymouth Township, Shickshinny, Tunkhannock, West Pittston and Wyalusing - all but the West Pittston store were technically out of the floodplain.

May credits the Tilbury Fire Company - whose fire hall on East Poplar Street got flooded - and employees for their help in getting the Plymouth Township store back up and running. Store manager Carol Morris was instrumental: "We couldn't have done it without her," May said. He said Joe Patton was another employee who "went above and beyond."

May said flood insurance covered the majority of rebuilding costs. He said government loans were available to businesses, "but the rates were not very competitive" so he didn't apply. Instead, the Mays went to their own bank for a loan to fix up the Wyalusing store.

Marie Voyton, owner of Pine Exterminating on U.S. Route 11, was on "pins and needles" when Hurricane Sandy blew in recently, afraid of a Lee repeat.

She started moving things early this time - unlike during Lee, when she had to scramble to get some of the most important things out.

"If I didn't take my computer the day we were leaving, I would have lost my customer base," Voyton said.

Since Voyton bought the building in 1992, it usually only got a couple of inches on the first floor during floods. In the Lee flood, the water came up 7 feet, almost to the second floor.

When the floodwaters receded, Voyton had to pry the door open. Everything was ruined: office machinery, furniture, equipment, paperwork.

"It was horrendous," she said. "Nothing was salvageable."

Family and friends helped rebuild. The building had to be gutted. It took three days to wash off the thick, foul flood mud, then haul it out of the basement by the bucketful before spraying everything down with bleach. They moved Voyton's office, the furnace and other essentials upstairs to protect them from future floods.

What irritates Voyton most is that she had to fend for herself - she couldn't get federal money to help rebuild, and a Small Business Administration loan, with its 4 percent interest rate, didn't appeal to her.

Flood insurance doesn't cover everything: you might have $50,000 in coverage, but end up with $70,000 or $80,000 worth of damage, she said. And flood insurance doesn't cover the exterior of the building, including signs, she said.

"When it's your livelihood, it's tough," Voyton said.

Ensuring flood insurance

Because of the repetitive flooding, the supervisors want to ensure residents will stay eligible for federally backed flood insurance. To that end, they recently adopted a revised floodplain ordinance, as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Conrad said township officials will work with the flood plain manager, building inspector, zoning officer and Uniform Construction Code inspector to ensure it is strictly enforced.

"We were told by the federal government if we don't follow that flood plain ordinance to the letter, the township could get kicked out of the (National Flood Insurance Program)," she said.

That almost happened to West Pittston - borough officials didn't enforce their floodplain ordinance in the aftermath of the Lee flood - and the borough has until Dec. 1 to get in compliance, which it is in the process of doing. If a municipality is out of compliance, officials could end up losing the ability to get federal funding for it and its residents, as well as federally backed insurance.

Township officials will work with individual property owners to ensure they comply, Conrad said.

"The floodplain ordinance is there for a reason," she said. "It's for everyone's benefit."

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072

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